Matches
by akaiciel
Summary: At the party after the Asian tournament finals, Mariah remembers the night Rei disappeared. Mariah POV.


Chapter 1

Once they grasped hands at the end of the tournament, that was it, it was as if nothing had changed for Li and Rei. Once again, they were the boys I'd grown up with, the boys who used to climb trees and play tricks on the elders and beyblade for fun. It was as if nothing had happened at all in the past year, as if Rei had never left. 

I wouldn't expect Gary or Kevin to understand, but I'd thought that Li might have figured it out. I hoped Rei would, but I'm not surprised that he didn't - he's never been much for seeing what's straight in front of his face. 

"So Rei, what was it like, battling your old team?" 

"Li, how did you feel when you lost?" 

"Tyson, why did you hand the match over to Rei?" 

We never had cameras in our village, or television or radio. I'm pretty certain that none of them knew how easily their words could be twisted around, made bad. Not that it mattered, I suppose. It's not as if any of them read newspapers anyway. 

Rei used to read books. Rei used to read a lot of books. I can remember knocking on his door to ask if Rei could come out to play, and out he'd come - hauling a tome the size of the encyclopaedia in his arms. He'd give me a lopsided grin with several teeth missing - we were pretty young at that point - and say he just _had_ to know what was going to happen. 

I'd get angry, tell him he wasn't my best friend anymore, but he knew better. He'd just laugh at me and say that that was fine, Li was his best friend anyway. 

It was true as well. No matter how much I pretended, how much I hoped, Rei always treated me a bit like a sister he could come back to at any point. Li was the friend, the one whose company he liked so much he actually made an effort to keep him around. I was the fallback, for when Li was doing homework, or sick, or eating his lunch. 

The last time I saw Rei before he left, I was at his house. We didn't play anymore, obviously - we were too old for that - but we would still stay out as late as possible, beyblading or playing games, or just lying on the grass, waiting for the light fade away. 

I knocked on the door as I had done all my life, but for the first time, he didn't answer. Gently, I pushed the door. It came open easily. 

I stepped inside, nervous. This was very definitely against the rules of our village. Not only were children supposed to stay inside while the adults ate, a child going into someone else's house without permission was most definitely forbidden. "Rei?" I called quietly, not sure whether to hope he would be in or not. 

There was no answer. Certain he was out, I stepped further inside, walking through the living area and down the hall. The forbidden freedom was thrilling, and, with a legitimate reason to rationalise this invasion of privacy, I made the most of it. 

"Rei?" I stopped tiptoeing and began to walk properly, sure he had already left to meet us by the lake.

Eventually, I found myself by Rei's room. I'd been there many times before, but now that he was out, it felt strange. I pushed open the door- 

And practically _screamed_ when I was faced with a figure. I blinked and swallowed, wondering how I was going to get out of this - before I realised there wasn't anything to be afraid of. 

It was Rei, sitting on his window-seat and staring at the sunset. He had a book in his hand, but it was obviously nowhere near his head. I remember noticing how troubled he looked, thinking that he must be very, very deep in thought not to notice my arrival. 

I blushed, I don't know why. "Rei!" I snapped, a little too loudly. 

He dropped the book and stood suddenly, on his guard. 

My people are half human, half creature, but sometimes we lean more towards one species than the other. At that moment, Rei was ready to pounce, his eyes slits and his claws out. The moment he saw who he was about to strike, he relaxed, and his eyes became round once more. 

"Mariah," he said, sounding relieved. "What are you doing, sneaking up on me like that?" 

It took me a moment to remember. "You didn't meet us by the lake," I said finally, sounding a lot more accusing than I meant to. "What are you doing?" 

It looked like he couldn't remember either. Finally he glanced at the floor. "Reading," he said, and bent to pick up the book. 

"You weren't reading, Rei. Reading involves eyes." 

He smiled at me. I gave up acting annoyed and smiled back. He placed the book carefully on his alphabetically perfect bookshelf and sat back on the window-seat. 

"Mariah," he said hesitantly, "Have you ever been… outside the village?" 

My eyes widened. "No, of course not! Children aren't-" 

"Li has." 

I stared. "He… He can't…" I tried to protest, but Rei doesn't lie. He was looking at me intently, like he was waiting for something. 

_What are you looking for, Rei? What is it you want me to do? _

I ended up blurting out, "What was it like?"

I knew instantly that I'd said something I shouldn't have. Rei didn't look angry, but he closed his eyes and stayed that way, perfectly silent and perfectly still. 

"Rei?"

"You should ask him yourself." 

And that, as far as Rei was concerned, was that. 

But I wasn't going to let it go that easily. "Why should I ask him when you're right here?" I asked hotly, annoyed with how he was dismissing me so easily. 

"Li's not as hard to get on with as you think. Neither are Kevin, or Gary, or any of the other kids in the village." 

So he knew. He knew that I valued him above the others, that I thought he was something more than they were. 

"I still don't see why _you_ can't tell me," I persisted. Rei studied me for a moment. I looked right back, waiting to see what his decision was. 

"They made fun of him, you know," he said eventually. 

"They did?" I was puzzled, at a loss. "What for?" 

He frowned. "You know we're not like them, right?" 

I shook my head slowly. Something flickered in his eyes. 

"You should. We all should. Just because we're not official adults yet, it doesn't mean… It doesn't mean they should be allowed to hide things from us!" He turned to me, that hard expression still in his eyes. "How old are you, Mariah?" 

"What do you mean?" 

"I mean how many years have you been alive for?" 

I was taken aback. In our village, we don't celebrate time passing, but the obstacles we overcome, the things we achieve. Rei would be an adult when he stopped trying to learn things from books, and chose a life occupation. I would be an adult when it became time to train me in the ways of women, a time that was far too near for my liking. 

"I…" I thought hard, but I honestly had no clue, and he knew it. "Eight?" I ventured, counting the winters I could remember. 

"You're thirteen, Mariah." 

For a moment, I forgot about Rei, and marvelled in the fact that I'd been around for thirteen whole years. 

"And I'm fourteen. I turned fourteen today." 

Since then, I've learned that this sort of announcement is usually followed by congratulations. It wasn't like that for us though. I was more concerned with something else altogether. 

I spoke haltingly. "But… how do you know?" 

He looked at me incredulously. "Our birthdays exist, Mariah! They're just kept from us." 

I swallowed. "But then it must be the right decision to do that, if the elders say so-" 

He fixed me with his gaze, that look he has where he doesn't seem like Rei anymore, but like someone I can't go near. Like an outsider. 

"You're wrong," he said cuttingly, in a tone that suggested if I didn't know why I was wrong, I should stop hanging around and bothering him. 

I found myself growing angry in spite of myself. "Oh really?" I said sharply. "And why is that, oh great one? What, you think you're as smart as the elders now?" 

The outsider expression faded, and he looked away, stricken. "I'm sorry, I just-" 

"You know what? Forget it. I think I'm going to go find out if Li's as good company as you seem to think." 

"Mariah-" 

"After all, he is sooo much more interesting than I am, maybe I could learn from him, be as smart as you are! Or maybe that's something I'll never be able to hope for, maybe I'm just too stupid!" 

"Mariah, I didn't mean-" 

"You know what? You're the one who's wrong, Rei!" I shouted, not caring who heard me. Rei stood, looking helplessly at me, as clueless as always. "Things like birthdays - they don't matter! No one cares if I'm thirteen, or fifteen or twenty-eight, all they know is that I don't fit the clothes of a child anymore!" 

He looked at me, startled. I felt tears springing to my eyes, but blinked them away. The last thing I wanted to do was cry over this, especially in front of him. 

"You…" I could tell he was choosing his words very carefully. I looked at the floor, and waited for him to say whatever he needed to. "You're being fitted for… women's clothes?" I heard him swallow. "Fitted for dresses?" 

At that moment, something in his voice made me wonder if he knew what the elders had said to me. 

But then he laughed, and I looked up in surprise. "So," he said, looking slightly mystified. "You're going to be made an adult soon. Wow, I always figured I'd be the adult first, or maybe Li. But you'll be putting us kids on kitchen duty before you know it!" 

I shook my head, upset by the mixture of amusement and bitterness in his voice. "No, I'm not an adult yet, and I don't know why the elders can't see that! I don't want to take cooking lessons, or, or wear dresses every day, or get _married_, or-" 

I stopped right there because I was lying through my teeth. I do want to get married, I always have. I also want to have children. What I don't want to do is re-live my mother's life, where that was all she did - I want to do more, I want to do amazing things! I just want someone with me when I do them, that's all, someone who understands me and cares about me, who wants to do great things as well… 

I turned around and ran away as fast as I could. I could vaguely hear Rei calling my name, but the most important thing to me then was to make sure that he didn't see my face, that he didn't see how red I'd gone the moment marriage was brought up. 

I didn't want him to guess that I knew what our elders had planned for us. 

That night, I was woken by people shouting. I leapt out of bed, the instincts of my ancestors rising in me. I ran to the front door and was just about to open it when- 

"Rei's gone!" 

"He's missing?" 

"We're going to search the woods, hurry!" 

I saw the light of waving torches glowing through the curtains, and turned around. My parents had gone to help the search, trying not to wake me. I leaned against the door and sank to the floor, shaking with fury. 

I knew even before they found the note that he wasn't missing. 

He had left. 


End file.
